This is the author's final version of the article (under the title "Speaking of continuity... Religious change and moral dilemmas among Christian Bidayuhs in Malaysian Borneo"). The final publication is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2012 by the American Anthropological Association.The nascent anthropology of Christianity highlights rupture as central to conversion. Yet thick ethnography of a Bidayuh village in Malaysian Borneo reveals how conversion can also foster modes of thinking and speaking about continuity between Christianity and “the old ways.” Through a study of the shifting moral and religious topography of a community in which three churches coexist alongside a few elderly animist practitioners, I argue that such discourses and practices of continuity highlight the pluralistic and sometimes contradictory nature of Christianization. At the same time, they generate an understanding of conversion as a temporal and relational positioning that encompasses both converts and nonconverts.William Wyse Fund, Evans Fund, Smuts Memorial Fund, and Sir Bartle
Frere’s Memorial Fund at the University of Cambridge and a Horniman/Sutasoma Award from the Royal Anthropological Institute
